08 October 2021

One thing we share with spiders: kneecaps


All taxa possess a proximal short segment (coxa; shown in dark gray), and most taxa also have an additional short segment (trochanter; shown in light gray). But only arachnids have a third short leg segment (patella; shown in black) that is intercalated between two longer leg segments. Our data show that the proper formation of this unique leg segment requires the function of dac2 and thus link the origin of the patella to the duplication and neofunctionalization of the dachshund gene in arachnids...
This definitely gets filed in the "things you wouldn't know" category.

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